194 HAMLET
“melancholy” and “unmanly grief,”
with “A heart unfortified, a mind
impatient” (1.2.96). He is, in other
words, unstable and rash.
Although Hamlet elicits respect
for his nobility and receives
censure for his attitude, he has
a distinctive need to offer other
people advice. He tells Ophelia to
choose a nunnery over marriage;
he advises the players on their
acting techniques, and he
reprimands Laertes for weeping
at Ophelia’s funeral. What makes
Hamlet think he has more right to
mourn than Laertes, her brother?
From what experience, and with
what authority does he lecture the
actors on stagecraft? And from
what motive does he send Ophelia
off to a convent?
The play’s the thing
The ghost has informed Hamlet
that his father was murdered with
a poison administered into his ear
while asleep in his orchard. This
very same scenario is played out
in The Mousetrap, the play Hamlet
chooses to stage before the King
and Queen. The Player King’s
brother emerges from the shadows
of an orchard to pour poison into
the Player King’s ear. Hamlet has
chosen drama as the medium
through which to test the truth of
the ghost’s story. First, he explains
to the players that the function of
plays and acting is, “to hold, as
’twere, the mirror up to nature, to
show virtue her own feature, scorn
her own image, and the very age
and body of the time his form and
pressure” (3.2.21–24). Drama is, in
Hamlet’s view, a way of revealing
truths about real life. It is with this
logic that he claims that a play will“catch the conscience of the King”
(2.2.607). The power of drama to
move individuals to tears, guilt,
and happiness is powerfully
explored both here and in the scene
in which the chief player delivers a
speech to Hamlet about the fall of
Troy. This monologue focuses on
the intensity of the grief of Hecuba,
whose husband, Priam, has been
slaughtered by the Greek enemy.
Hamlet is clearly moved by the
extent of Hecuba’s sorrow and
by the actor’s ability to engage
emotionally with the speech. He
considers both himself and his
mother inadequate in comparison,
because Gertrude fails to mourn
for her husband’s death, and
Hamlet struggles to motivate
himself to seek revenge.Mother complex
It is no accident, then, that
Hamlet’s Mousetrap is not entirely
motivated by the discovery of
Claudius’s guilt. He is also usingA poster advertises the 1868 grand
opera Hamlet by French composer
Ambroise Thomas. The story became
popular in France after a translation by
adventure novelist Alexandre Dumas.Poor Yorick One subject that is inseparable
from the play concerns the nature
of existence. Perhaps the most
iconic image in Shakespearian
tragedy is that of Hamlet admiring
Yorick’s skull. This is the moment
when Hamlet recognizes the
reality of death. He contemplates
the difference between the living
head of his father’s jester, with
its lips, tongue and wit, and the
grotesque remnants of his body.
Yorick’s skull is given to
Hamlet by a gravedigger, who is
able to see humor in the tragedy.
He speaks in a pragmatic way
about whether Ophelia (an allegedsuicide case) merits a Christian
burial, and casually digs up
bones from graves to clear
space. In a play in which all is
contemplated by Hamlet, the
gravedigger is a welcome voice
that trivializes the otherwise
overwhelming subject of death.
In 1930, G. Wilson Knight
argued that Hamlet’s fixation
with death poisons everyone
around him, and that it is he
who triggers the entire tragedy.
Although Hamlet claims to
be a victim of fortune, it can be
argued that he is ultimately
responsible for his own fate.